Pennsylvania

Just over three-quarters of
Pennsylvanian voters chose to repeal Prohibition on November 7, 1933.
That decision was later ratified on December 5th. As the
stories below illustrate, Prohibition was a troublesome time for
Pennsylvania, especially when it came to poisonous liquor.

A Washington Post
story from 1933 tells of how 12 died in Philadelphia after drinking
alcohol that had been stolen from a garage. It had been apparently
intended for use in car radiators.

Ten
years earlier, The New York Times
declared that with 875 deaths from liquor, it had more [deaths]
in [a] year than any other city.

Pittsburgh,
too, had its problems with poison booze. One newspaper article told
of how the city experienced 7 deaths from tainted liquor in one
week.